likesvslipsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: likes is a verb, lips is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“likes” is a verb and “lips” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,771
“likes” frequency rank
#38,262
“lips” frequency rank
55033
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature likes lips
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs like Plural des Substantivs lip

Letter map: likes vs lips

Shared letters muted; letters that set likes and lips apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
likes
4 ch
lips

Part-of-speech tell for likes / lips

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: likes is averb and lipsanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55033, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

likes is recorded at frequency rank #16,771, classified as averb, pronounced […]. lips is at rank #38,262, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 55033, this pair ranks #995,320 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of likes vs lips

Shared letters: ils. Private to "likes": ek. Private to "lips": p.

"likes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "lips" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • likesilkes · lieks · likess · likkes · likse · lkies · llikes
  • lipsilps · lipps · lipss · lisp · llips · lpis

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "likes" and "lips" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "likes" is a verb and "lips" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "likes" or "lips"?
"likes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,771 in our German list, against #38,262 for "lips". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "likes" and "lips".

  • Full dictionary entry for "likes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lips" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #995,320 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "likes" and "lips" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lips vs puzzles". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #995,320 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list